If Given the Opportunity
by Kari Lynn Cortez
Summary: A Short ficlet about the one charecter who is probably misunderstood the most. If Given the Opportunity, how would life be different? Draco Malfoy ponders... RR, Flame if you must!


Title: If Given the Opportunity

Sub-title: I Wonder

Author: Kari Lynn

Subject: Draco Malfoy

Rating: G-PG for absolutely nothing!

Disclaimer: I do not own Draco Malfoy, he belongs to J.K.R, I do mention Harry, Ron and Hermione, so I guess I should say I don't own them either. Not that you would believe me if I did. Anything else you recognize is hers too. But the idea for a fic like this and the actual words are mine.

Credits: I must give Carmen/CarmenSanDiego19 credit for the first sentence, and the last paragraph, she came up with them for her fic, I Wonder. But as she is my muse, she gave me permission to plagiarize them for this.

Authors Note: I just got the idea for this fic when reading Carmen's fic, I Wonder, I highly recommend it, it's here on fanfiction.net if any of you are interested, I personally think it's her best work, and that's saying something, because I've read all her fics. I should also say that I would REALLY REALLY APPRECIATE IT if you would R/R. If you have any questions/comments or anything at all you can feel free to email me @ hermionie121212@aol.com I know, Hermione is spelled wrong, I added an extra 'i' as the second to last letter. It's kinda my trademark! *Smiles wide* but I'm getting off the subject, this is a short ficlet that I started writing once and never finished. Today I found it, finished it, and decided to type it and post it here! ENJOY!

IF GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY 

            I wonder if the world would eventually implode, or explode, if it would become a dead planet, if given the opportunity. I wonder if humans would ever use DNA and micro technology to recreate the long-extinct life forms of dinosaurs, if given the opportunity. 

Ever wonder what your life would be like if just ONE small thing were different? Say, your dad had never quit his job for a better one across the country. You wouldn't have the same friends, the same personality, the same life. You may not have gotten into drugs; you may not be failing English. On the other hand, you may not be playing basketball; you may not even be reading this- but you are- because you were given the opportunity. And you took it.

I never was- given the opportunity that is. If I was, life would be very different, VERY different. Perhaps it would be for the better, maybe for the worse. It's actually surprising to think about, maybe I would be more like him, or better friends with her. Maybe I wouldn't have failed English last year. Maybe I would even have graduated with the rest of my class. Interesting to think about, that's not what happened, but I can daydream…

"Done!" I scribbled my name in the upper right hand corner of my potions essay and took off running. I was due in detention with McGonigal over 10 minutes ago, and I had already lost enough house points this year.

"Hi, see ya at dinner" I called to a friend here, a classmate there as I struggled through the evening crowds. "Sorry I'm lat professor!" I panted, skidding to a halt directly inside the door of the Transfiguration classroom.

"15 minutes" she peered over her glasses suspiciously, but seemed to find me innocent of whatever she suspected. "Very well, take a seat and start scrubbing." I sighed, a Hufflepuff first year somehow blew up a box of sugar quills when he tried to transfigure the bag that the box was in into a laundry basket.

Life is depressing- I go to school, get bossed around by teachers. I go home, get bossed around by family. I go halfway in-between, and get reprimanded by classmates for doing everything that DOESN'T matter at all, and totally ignored when cool stuff happens to me. Life is very depressing. I stood up feeling much better. 'Odd' I thought, 'how scrubbing candy-covered chairs for 6 hours would relieve my anxiety.'

Returning to the common room I didn't look at anyone. As I walked I pondered on my life.

Father- didn't care squat about anything having to do with me as long as I was 'upholding the family honor' and as long as I followed in his footsteps my entire life.

Mother- loved me, but it didn't matter. Because she didn't love father, he didn't care about her, so I couldn't either.

Friends- …

Here I stopped. Who was my friend? Pansy was my girlfriend, yeah, but only because I was rich, and pureblood, and because there was no other choice. She was from a rich pureblood family, and it had been made into writing within my first year of life. I sneered at the walls, 'arranged marriage'. Crabbe and Goyle, friends? I had never really thought about them that way before. They were friends with each other, but they scared off anyone foolish enough to pick a fight with me. Well… almost everyone. I thought about my greatest enemies, Potter, Granger, and Weasley.

If only they knew…

I had been turned against them all from the minute I could open my eyes.

'Potter's = Bad' I grew up learning.

'Weasley's = disgrace!' I had been brought to think. As for Granger, oh, there was nothing against her personally. But what was to be expected from a boy whose first words were 'pureblood' and 'dirty mudbloods'. 

After a few minutes of thinking I got up and subconsciously started walking. I didn't really know what to do. I had nothing to do. Never did. My life was boring, useless, pointless, and any other adjective you could think of that meant the same thing as those did, I don't own a thesaurus. And so I wandered, me, friendless and lifeless, through the halls, wondering what life would have been like if I had it my way…

_"Draco! Come on honey, we have to go shopping!"_

_"Coming Mum!" I bounded down the steps of our small apartment, eager to go to Diagon Ally and get my school supplies…_

I slipped out of the fantasy thinking a non-sarcastic 'I wish'. I could tell right now that this never would have happened, never could have happened. But I couldn't help to think- what if it had? Right now my future was laid out before me like the homework due tomorrow. I would graduate; become a death eater officially, meaning I would get the dark mark. And I would spend the rest of my life serving my master, or unless I got caught and put in Azkaban, in which case I would only spend part of the rest of my life serving my master. The very end would be spent in living heck.

'Maybe…' I wondered, 'Maybe… If I was given the opportunity to turn good… to become a spy perhaps… would I?' but now I would never know. 'Cause it's been more than 50 years since that day. Potter killed my master 40 years ago, I spent 20 in Azkaban. And now, I'm once again Draco Malfoy. Not Draco Malfoy; death eater, not Draco Malfoy; Slytherin. I'm just plain old Draco Malfoy. Not Draco Malfoy; auror/retired spy for the ministry, like it could have been. It's just Draco Malfoy, because I wasn't given the opportunity, so I never had a chance to take it.

It's kind of ironic, if you think about it, that just wondering could have told you this story. While were on the subject though, I wonder if the world would spin off it's orbit and crash into another planet, or the moon, or the sun, if given the opportunity.


End file.
